Charlotte Horetshy
2 years old
Roaring Spring, PA

Thinking he’d rather err on the side of caution, the pediatrician sent Charlotte for more tests.  One of those tests, an electrocardiogram (EKG), showed possible cause for concern, and an appointment was scheduled with Geisinger pediatric cardiologist Fareed Ahmad, MD, at the Janet Weis Children’s Hospital Pediatric Specialty Services office in Altoona.  “We discovered a murmur on top of the rapid heartbeat, and it appeared that she had an enlarged heart and compressed left heart chambers. 

Cortriatrium is a rare heart defect that makes up only one-tenth of a percent of all congenital cardiac malformations,” explains Dr. Ahmad.  “In this anomaly, the left atrium is divided into two chambers, separated by a diaphragm with a little opening that does not allow effective communication between the chambers.  Her two pulmonary veins were draining to right atrium, and that was resulting in significant right chambers enlargement.” 

Young Charlotte had seemed completely healthy, but she was suffering from a rare and serious heart defect.  Fortunately, a separate defect – a still-open duct that normally would have closed after birth – was helping the blood flow, essentially saving her life.  But one side of her heart was continuing to expand.  Surgery was scheduled for Friday, only three days after the family arrived at the hospital.  She was monitored in the PICU until then.  It wasn’t long before Charlotte was back to the business of being a thriving infant.

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